This Sunday: Peach Bellinis, Blueberry Syrup and Check Out Some Buskers

Oh man! Summer! Where did it go?? Wasn’t Victoria Day like last week? Time to have an end of summer brunch party so you don’t miss any moment of precious warm, sunny summerness before it’s gone again. To soak up every last drop of the warm weather, celebrate late summer fruit like peaches and blueberries. Quick! Blueberries are nearly finished.

OK, you’re right; we need to calm down. Like, with a bellini.

You’ll need:

Peaches!

Prosecco (or sparkling wine of your choice)

Sparkling water (for the non-drinkers including kids)

A blender

Chop up some peaches and stick them in the blender to get a peach puree. Add puree to wine glass or champagne flute and pour a little prosecco on top. One part puree to two parts sparkling wine. If you don’t want the booze with your brunch and/or you’re making kid-friendly bellinis, sub in sparkling water and adjust the ratio to get more peachiness.

Oh, right, sustenance. You can’t serve only bellinis for breakfast. Whip up a batch of your favourite pancakes or pop your favourite frozen waffle in the toaster and top it with some fresh blueberry syrup. We like this simple bites recipe:

You’ll need:

2 cups blueberries

1 1/4 cups water

1/2 sugar

1/2 lemon (zest + juice)

Using a paring knife, peel off some zest strips from the lemon and set aside. Put blueberries and 1/2 cup of the water in a saucepan and mash the berries good. Bring to a boil, then lower the temperature and let simmer for 15 minutes. Stir a little. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour berries into a sieve over top of a heatproof bowl.

In another saucepan, or having washed out the first one, add the rest of the water (3/4 cup), the lemon peels and the sugar. Bring them to a boil and let them bubble for 15 minutes. Add the blueberry juice you strained out and squeeze out 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. Let the entire mixture boil for another minute or two then take it off the heat. Remove the lemon peels and when it’s cool enough, pour over pancakes or waffles.

DO:

Do you have a Buskerfest in your city? Toronto’s is on right now, but we seem to recall Halifax’s being a little earlier in August. Even if you don’t have any official busker festival happening now, mosey on down to your local touristy areas downtown and check out some wicked street performers. When the weather’s right, you’ll be sure to find breakdancers, unicyclists, magicians, musicians and a chalk artist or two. If there are no street performers to be had in your town, we think this is a fine time to learn how to juggle.